Marking device for rope



July 12, 1927. E w BREWSTR MARKING DEVICE Fox( ROPE Filed July 29, 1926 HUM/vim Patented July 12, 1927.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ELLIS W. BBEWSTEB, `Ol' 4IPLIYOUTIIH, MASSACHUSETTS, ABSIG'NOB T0 PLYIOUTH COBDAGE COMPANY, F PLYHOUTH,'IASSACH`USETTS, A CORPORATION Ol' IAB- SACHUSETTS.

EARRING DEVICE FOB ROPE. y

application ma my a9, 192e. smai'llro. 125,671.

This invention relates to improvement in marking devices for rope.

The peculiar structure of a rope, so rou h that it can not well receive print, and `e l incidents ofv the use of a ro producing wear and abrasion on, all si es so that it could not retain print, have made the question of h'ow to mark a rope satisfactorily and permanently one of the problems of the ages. 1 At the saine time the ease with which an unscrupulous salesman can misrepresent the material or the quality of any particular rope, ,and the eorts sometimes made, in the case of a poor rope, to impute the manufacture of it to other than its true maker, make it especially desirable that there should be some indisputable means by which the maker of a rope can permanently aociate ywith his product some mark or intelligible sign which 3 can distinguish it 'from the product'of other makers, or by which other specific' information can be told regarding it.

The present invention provides a new device for this urpose which has the advantages that it oes not require to extend continuousl throughout the length of the rope; that it oes not, except at intervals, intro- V duce ino the body of the'rope an foreign material; and that in its preferre form it may have the durability of metal, as contrasted with the frailty of pa r or cotton in by suitable expression in the a pende markers which have hereto ore been proposed. Other advantages are that the maker of the rope, at his election, maypeither place f $5 the marker `at one location only in each length of rope, or may repeat the mark at suc intervals as he desires along the length of the rope; and consequently ma control very completely the amount of stoc used in 40 markers.

These advantages, and the others which characterize the invention, are attained by` embodyin within the rope at one or more locations, but preferably at regular intervals, interior tags which are physically secured to one of rope elements, as to a yarn. These tags may be of saft metal or leather in thin sheet form, having suilicient inherent stiffness tc held in place on a yarn for a brief 59 time during manufacture, until embedded, con' led with sufficient inherent flexibility andgfeedcm from resilience and brittleness to be capable of being bent around a rope yarn withcut fracture; and having such eiiduring tenacity or cohesive strength as can withstand all Vdisintegrating' forces which may be applied to it byrelative movements among its adjacent rope elements throughout the life of the rope. Such a marker, made from thin sheet metal, or from a thin strip of leather, may be stamped in the form of a letter of the al habet,"or a trade mark l bol, as an anc or, or maybe a plain eet having distinctive perforations. Having been secured temporarily on a rope yarn either before or while the ro e is being made, such a tag becomes secure rmanentl in position when the said arn as reache its place in the assembly o yarns that make up a strand of the rope. As each tag is complete in itself there is no particular relation of proximity -which need exist between it and f any other ta in the same rope. The color and the dura ility of a marker which is not subject to destructive corrosion, make the mark permanently distinguishable and readily discoverable upon the runlayiiig of the rope. Inasmuch as a rope yarn has a substantial diameter and a practically incomressible limit, the marking device which has en wrapped around or among one or more yarns remains legible in aspect; and because of its exible character it can be flattened when removed, for still greater le 'bi]ity.

It is intended that the patent all cover.

claims, whatever features of patenta le novelty exist in the invention disclosed.

In the accompanying drawin Fi re l represents the .ends of a rope,

showing the marking devices ofthe invention in place on a yarn of the rope;

Filgure 2 shows such a marking device in its s ape before insertion in the rope,l to which it may be restored after being Ound in and removed from the rope.

Figure 3 shows a tag slipped throu h the the hemp centre of a wire rope, and Whether the same be technically a yarn, twine or cord.v

The invention makes use of a multiplicity of separate tabs, tags or markers, 14 preferably made of thin flexible sheet metal, such as copper, although leather and any of various other materials may be used. One specimen of sucha tag is shown in Figure 2 in its plane form, as it looks before being introduced into the rope, or after being extracted therefrom and smoothed. In the particular case illustrated the mark on the tag has the form of a letter A, which may be assumed to be the initial of the maker of the rope, or it might be the trade mark of the maker, or might be a private signal indicating any particular variety of information, such as the quality or material of the rope, or the year when it was made, or the person on whose order it was made. Likewise other forms may be used, for example,

a star or an anchor or a plane sheet, round or square, in which any word, date or mark is unched.

n constructing a rope embodying the invention, one of these tags is placed in the rope by securing it to one of the strands, preferably within the strand. This may be done as in Figure 3 'by slipping it (14') edgewise through a yarn 12, between the fibres making up the small body of hemp which constitutes a yarn. If the metal be stiff enough it can be merely thrust in, having first been arranged at a proper angle of parallelism with the fibres in the yarn, and then friction will hold the tag temporarily in place. As the yarn moves forward into proximity to other yarns which are being assembled with it in the making of a strand, this tag, projecting from the yarn, is engaged by other yarns that are being assembled and is by them bent in among the Y yarns, in the midst of them all in form and position such that it occupies a` minimum of space among and between them, being incidentally bent from its original plane shape into whatever shape thus happens. Or it may be that the tag (14) is inltially secured to the yarn by being bent around it, as in Figure 4. Or if leather is used it may be stuck to the yarn by a suitable adhesive.

In' a strand having interior and exterior yarns, this ta would naturally and preferably be associated with one of the interior yarns. However, if the'rope structure be such that every yarn at times comes to the surface-,so that the particular place at which this mai-ker is put may happen to be laid at the surface, it is possible to make sure that the mark will remain forever present in a rope and not destroyed by abrasion of the surface, by putting in additional markers, as frequently as may be desired, some of which may happen to be at the surface of the rope but a considerable number of which will under the law of chances 'of distribution find lodgment in the rope at some protected interior position. Each ta thus introduced will remain permanently in the rope, will endure so long as the rope does and will be colorful and distinguishable whenever the rope is opened for examination, provided a proper quality of non-corrosive or otherwise durable metal is selected. Other materials than metal may be used, but metal is suggested because of its durability and its cheapness.

Preferably the metal chosen should be of such soft nature as to bend readily when compressed by other adjacent yarns, and so as not to injure any yarn by abrasion Adue toany small movement of yarn over its `edges as it lies in the rope.

In the manufacture of such a rope the previously prepared tags are indivi ually, at intervals, by a mechanism, set into one of the yarns which is moving on its way to enter a strand in the making of the ro The ta may be thrust through the yarn tween t e bres thereof, or it may be artl wrapped around that yarn by bein olded and stuck or pinched on it. In cit er case in its first stage of attachment it is held thereon by friction or adhesion, but, as the yarn advances with this tag protruding from it, when the tag reaches the throat which the yarn is entering with all of the other yarns to make the strand, the roximity of the adjacent yarns will ben the protruding parts of the tag and will wrap them to a degree about the yarn; and they may find places between other yarns of the strand, and in any event the tag will be compremed into such thin quarters as to make practically no difference in the size of the rope at the place Where the marker is.

It may be considered sufficient to place a single such tag in ro or such tags may be introduced in multi e, at intervals throughout the length of t e rope.

In the case of a rope used as a centre for a wire rope the tag might be ut around the entire centre rope, as this wi be covered by the wires before it is put to use.

I claim as my invention:

1. The combination, with a rope, of means associating information therewith comprising a thin, flexible tag, secured to a yarn within a strand of the rope and wholly located at and within the circumferential limits ofsaid strand.

2. The combination, with a ro ,of means associating information therewith comprising a tiexible strip of distinctive as ect held on a yarn and embedded in a strand of the rope, and wholl located at and within the circumferential iinits of said strand.

3. rhe combination, with a rope, of means associating infomation therewith comprislli ing aexible late assin through a yarn, tinctive aspect embodied within and probetween the res t ereo y," and compressed tected by the body of the rope.

amon'ghthe yarns of the rope. 6. The `combination, with a rope, of means 4. e combination, with a rope, of means associating information therewith compris- 15 5 associating information therewith comprising a multiplicity of tags set at intervals ing a fiexlble late passing through-a yarn alon the rope, within the rope and protectbetween the Ifibres thereof and in part ed thereby, each tag being discontinuous wrap d around the same yyarn of the rope. with the other tags.

5. he combination, with a rope, of means Signed at Plymouth, Massachusetts, this 20 l0 associating information therewith lcompris- 22nd day of June, 1926. 4

ing a thin, flexible metallic plate of dis- ELLIS W BREWSTER 

